Yahoo confirmed on Thursday that more than 500 million of its user accounts had been stolen in a breach said to have occurred in late 2014.
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Data breaches are all too common, though one of this size could spell a host of problems for consumers, investors and executives alike.
“This is the biggest data breach ever,” said well-known cryptologist Bruce Schneier, adding that the impact on Yahoo and its users remained unclear because many questions remain, including the identity of the state-sponsored hackers behind it.
But the reactions, spreading fast through Twitter, also revealed which Yahoo asset is most valuable to this social media demographic: fantasy sports.
In a statement Yahoo said, the “state-sponsored actor stole a copy of certain user account information, which may have included users’ names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers”. All affected users will be notified about the theft and advised how to protect themselves, according to the company. If the same password is used to access other sites, it should be changed too, along with any security questions similar to those used on Yahoo.
It was not clear how this disclosure might affect Yahoo’s plan to sell its email service and other core internet properties to Verizon Communications Inc.
That deal, announced two months ago, isn’t supposed to close until early next year.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, which may give them some room to renegotiate the purchase price or even to walk away.
Verizon said it still doesn’t know enough about the Yahoo break-in to assess the potential consequences.
The attack on Yahoo was unprecedented in size, more than triple other large attacks on sites such as eBay Inc, and it comes to light at a hard time for Yahoo.
“We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests, including consumers, customers, shareholders and related communities”, the company said in a statement.
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“This is going to slow things down”. “A buyer needs to understand the cybersecurity strengths and weaknesses of its target these days”. Shareholders are also anxious that it could lead to an adjustment in the price of the $4.8 billion transaction.
